The Nabati Poetry of the United Arab Emirates: Selected Poems, Annotated and Translated into English

Nabati poetry is the traditional poetry of the Arab tribes of Arabia and neighboring areas. Though composed in an artistic variant of ordinary Bedouin speech, historically this poetry is the descendant of the pre-Islamic Classical Arabic poetry of antiquity, and its modern exponents still compose in the traditional genres of boasting, praise, satire, elegy, advice, love, and lyric poetry. Presently, there is also a thriving tradition of poetic comment on contemporary social and political issues. This book gives an account of the tradition as practiced in the United Arab Emirates, exemplified by English verse translations of 53 poems by 25 different poets covering the last half century. The original Arabic poems are also included, with brief notes on their language, rhyme, and scansion. The book is also accompanied by a CD containing recordings of 22 of the poems in the original Arabic.